Requested Features and Enhancements Implemented in Prepar3D v3.2

Release Notes

The Prepar3D v3.2 update brings several new features and numerous platform, rendering, SimDirector, SDK, SimConnect, and multiplayer updates including increased performance for multiple views and touch gesture support.

In addition, for Professional Plus users, Prepar3D v3.2 introduces two new advanced simulation capabilities:

SimOperator, a native Instructor Operating Station (IOS), enabling real-time scenario creation and modification. Instructors can now control the simulation in real-time by freezing users, introducing failures, and much more.
Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) support. You can now integrate Prepar3D with other simulations using the IEEE standard for conducting real-time platform-level interactions. Current integration supports Entity State, Fire, and Detonation PDUs with additional capabilities coming in future releases.

The following list of updates has been categorized based on the installer required. The Client installer is required for Prepar3D v3.2, however the Content, Scenery, and SDK installers are optional. You must first have Prepar3D v3 installed to utilize the Client only installer. To install the Prepar3D v3.2 Client, you must first uninstall the Prepar3D v3.0/v3.1 Client via Programs and Features in Windows Control Panel. The Prepar3D v3.2 Client update will require you to reactivate your product, however if you have an internet connection it will be automatic. For more information please view the Prepar3D v3 Download/Installation Instructions from the Prepar3D.com Downloads page.

Prepar3D Client

General Platform Updates

New Features

Added gesture support including pinch to zoom and camera panning when using touch-enabled displays
Converted SimConnect Option Menu to Scaleform
SimOperator - A native Instructor Operating Station (IOS) based on SimDirector (Professional Plus)
Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) Support (Professional Plus)

Fixes and Improvements

Fixed bug that prevented Invalid Locale message from being ignored
ATC message box can now be shown/hidden through UI settings
Fixed bug that prevented custom cameras from saving into scenario file when using more than one view
Fixed bug where favorite vehicles could be cleared out when opening the Select Vehicle screen
Fixed tab order and focus issues for various UI screens
Installer now populates default install directory with location used by content/scenery when making client-only updates
Fixed bug that prevented placed scenery objects from disappearing after loading when using low graphics settings
Fixed issue where certain menu items would still be enabled when Instant Replay was active
Corrected default Avatar attach/detach conditions when loading from configuration files
Improved camera saving and loading in Avatar mode
Fixed bug in Scenario Startup screen that prevented user defined weather from restoring when switching themes
Fixed bug in Scenario Startup screen that caused selected weather theme to apply when pressing cancel
Fixed bug that would prevent snow textures from disappearing when changing weather in the UI
Fixed memory leak that would occur when using panel serialization
Reverted default scenario weather to Fair Weather from Cold Fronts to prevent wind from pushing aircraft to the right
Reorganized menu bar layout
Fixed bug where load would occur when hitting cancel from the startup screen after changing weather
Fixed bug where menu bar could sometimes be focused when alt-tabbing back to Prepar3D
Fixed bug that increased load times for certain third party add-on sceneries
Position freeze state now shown in InfoGen text
Fixed bug that could cause axis values for some control devices to be overwritten with 0
Fixed bug with email activation verification causing shut downs without notification
Extended max range of saturation slider in UI to 2
Reorganized several UI screens
Fixed bug where Time Preview window would still be on screen when opening other UI screens
Fixed bug that caused certain controller names to not be detected
Added additional spacing between menu item text and shortcut text
Added SimConnect call to get average surface elevation
Fixed bug that prevented mouse clicks from processing in certain aircraft
Fixed bug that could cause anti-cheat message to be displayed when new players join multiplayer sessions
Added more detailed avatar attach/detach notifications
Enhanced camera and position calculations where camera position would incorrectly shift when rotating vehicle
Pressurization system now simulated for non-user aircraft
Fixed bug which could cause attached objects to shift based on heading at high altitudes
Fixed bug where boolean entries not present in the Prepar3D.cfg would get modified to true
Saved Flight Plans are now referenced by a relative path to the scenario file instead of an absolute path
Fixed bug that prevented Scaleform Panel gauge callbacks from being called when reloading scenarios
Fixed bug where gauge update would only get called once when using Scaleform panels
Fixed crash that could occur when clicking on certain airspace boundaries in the map
Fixed crash caused by using the same .swf in multiple windows
Updated Select Vehicle screen to show/hide vehicle details
"Show Only Favorites" and "Group By:" filters in the Select Vehicle screen now persist
Fixed bug that prevented clicks from passing through transparent areas in Scaleform panels
Fixed bug that prevented global Minipanels from opening
Added Spoiler On and Spoiler Off control settings
Added Hat Switch POV controls for Elevator/Aileron Trim and Elevator/Rudder Trim
Fixed bug where Scaleform Panels would not resize properly with main window
Added ability to sort controller devices by name or number (number matching the SimConnect_MapClientEventToSimEvent ID)

Rendering and Performance Updates

New Features

Subsurface scattering effect now applied to SpeedTree leaves
Shoreline waves now appear along coastlines
Special effect objects now support the static sprite flag enabling spawned effects to move with its emitter

Fixes and Improvements

Improved overall rendering performance
Fixed bug that prevented surface condition effects from triggering
Reduced GPU memory bandwidth usage
Fixed runway line aliasing seen with higher dynamic reflections settings
Toned down wind effect on SpeedTree trees
IR now applies to SpeedTree trees
Fixed bug where light system would scale particles when zooming in
Fixed bug that could cause scenery and bridges to move with 3D waves
Increased autogen building draw distance
Fixed bug that could cause autogen buildings to float in some cases
Fixed bug that could cause emitted effects to spawn in incorrect locations
Fixed bug which caused controller based effects to spawn when application was paused
Fixed bug where certain SLI functions could be called when SLI was disabled
Reduced cases of autogen buildings floating above ground
Fixed bug where undocked Scaleform panels could go black when switching between different GPUs
Fixed bug that could cause fresnel color issues in certain materials
Fixed bug that could cause certain bump textured models to flicker
Fixed visual bugs with certain specular map textures
Fixed bug with terrain texture requests across multiple GPUs
Smoothed out planar reflection altitude transitions
Improved SLI performance when using reflections
Fixed bug where effects that would trigger during a vehicle crash would persist for a few frames after reset
Fixed bug that could cause Scaleform RTT elements to not reload when exiting and re-entering the vehicle
Fixed bug where aircraft labels would drift away from the aircraft when it banked
Minor performance improvement to CubeMap render
Fixed bug that caused 3D waves to influence float planes too strongly
Fixed bug that could cause certain effects to spawn twice with animation events

SimDirector Updates

New Features

Added touch controls when using touch-enabled displays
Can now export all objects or specific groups to object file (.xml)
Visual references to ownship can now be hidden, simplifying visualization for complex scenarios
Visualization nodes now show useful properties for the corresponding object
Groups can now be set to different colors
Added ZOrder property to OpenPanelAction and MenuPromptTrigger

Fixes and Improvements

Improved visual appearance during loading
Quick access items now persisted between runs
Fixed backstage button highlight color
Fixed bug that would cause objects referenced grouped objects to be incorrectly removed from the visualization in certain cases
Made toggling Execute Unreferenced Actions on and off easier
Added warnings for actions that are unreferenced when Execute Unreferenced Actions is set to false
Moved object manipulation to separate ribbon item
Merged all import options to single button
Can now select scenery export format (.sxml or .bgl)
Fixed bug where collapsed state of Preview windows would not persist
Added new hotkeys, default key mappings, and hotkey text descriptions
Selected object is now unselected when clicking terrain (can be toggled off if desired)
Fixed bug which prevented new objects from being referenced in trigger logic when using "Redirect Incoming References"
Fixed crash bug that would occur when ctrl drag dropping one visualization node to another when the first node was not selected
Fixed bug that could cause the ownship to be mistakenly selected in certain cases
Fixed bug where the object properties preview window and title would not get updated when changing vehicles
GaugeVariableName now allows custom properties
Fixed crash bug that could occur when using SetTargetAction on unsupported objects
Fixed bug where sorting could be incorrect when adding or renaming certain objects in the Scenario Objects View
Waypoint List connectors for selected waypoint lists are now green
Added additional quick action buttons to visualization nodes
Fixed bug where scenario was not marked as modified after making changes to object attachments
Fixed crash bug that could occur when trying to make a group before the catalog was loaded
Updated Visualization text for various objects
Fixed bug that could cause app to be disabled when opening the Visualization during certain Progress Log events in Preview mode
Fixed bug where a double load would occur when entering SimDirector with RealismOverrides that affected Terrain Settings
Made the "Duplicate" behavior consistent between the keyboard shortcut and context menu
Fixed bug where scenario could not be edited after canceling out of the Select Vehicle screen
Fixed bug where the UserAvatar icon would show when attached to a vehicle
Cylinder Position in CylinderPathArea can now only have on child set at a time
Fixed bug where the bounding box toggle setting would not apply to Scaleform Objects
Relative size can now be set in OpenPanelAction for Scaleform Panels

SDK and SimConnect Updates

Fixes and Improvements

Fixed memory leak that would occur when creating cameras through SimConnect

Multiplayer Updates

Fixes and Improvements

Minor updates to multiplayer UI
Fixed bug where Scenario Objects would not be cleared when rejoining a multiplayer scenario
Fixed bug with serializing spoiler handle values
Fixed bug where attached avatars were separate selectable targets
Fixed bug where pause menu would not display if host paused scenario without providing a reason
Shared cockpit now supported in structured scenarios
Containers now synchronized during multiplayer structured scenarios
Added player count to role labels

Prepar3D Content

General Updates

Fixed bug where registry values would be written to the wrong location on 32-bit Windows versions

Prepar3D Scenery

General Updates

Improved vegetation alpha to coverage
Fixed bug where registry values would be written to the wrong location on 32-bit Windows versions
Fixed bug causing visual artifacts with certain mission objects
Fixed visual defects with glass and z-fighting with certain buildings in KATL

Prepar3D SDK

General Updates

Fixed issue with using local modeldef.xml in 3dsMax scripts
Updated ISimObject, SimConnect, and Rendering PDK documentation
Fixed minor bugs in several example projects
Engine Tuner renamed to Engine Sound Tuner and now works with ISimObjects
Fixed documentation error with Token_Vars
Fixed documentation error with assigning RTTs to Scaleform Panels
Added Scaleform gauge sample
Renamed SimObject flag "always_use_avg_surface" setting to "ignore_waves"
Added SimConnect_RequestJoystickDeviceInfo function

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